Jack McElroy Slams John Troyer

This morning Editor Jack McElroy was a guest on the T. Blackman radio show from 8:30-9:00 a.m. on AM 850. Several callers took him to task for his Sunday column. He stated that his column was the same as Charlie Daniel cartoon. What was most troubling was the last caller asked him about the way the paper handled the Cynthia Finch situation. In response McElroy stated, John Troyer had all the booze on his p-card. We called on Troyer to resign and he did. He mentioned Troyer’s name about 6-7 times.

I contacted Mr. McElroy via his Scripps voicemail to explain that he had slandered and defamed the name and reputation of Mr. Troyer, the current Knox County Finance Director. McElroy in an exclusive interview with Brian’s Blog, McElroy said that he had called Mayor Ragsdale and T. Blackman and that he will be back on the radio tomorrow (Thursday June 4, 2009) to correct his error. McElroy said it was a “brain fart” and that he confused the name of Troyer and former Finance Director John Werner. I asked if he had contacted Mr. Troyer. He said that he left him a voicemail because Mr. Troyer was unavailable. I told McElroy that I hoped that worked for him. He thanked me for bringing it to his attention.

As we looked further into this situation, this afternoon. We do not find that the News Sentinel ever called for John Werner’s resignation. We find that John Werner voluntarily offered his resignation. Alcohol or as McElroy defined it “booze” was not the issue with the Werner p-card findings. Why did McElroy find it necessary to bring up Werner who is 23 months into his life as a private citizen?

This Editor is unlike any other Editor. He finds it necessary to appear on television public affairs programs, radio talk shows and write funny op-ed’s. Op-ed’s that make fun for public officials even an individual that is a recent transplant recipient. In his column he utilized questionable language when referring to Commissioner Strickland. It is as if he has a desire to be relevant and have “movie star” status and not the Editor of the daily paper. While Harry Moskos, Ron McMahan and Gerald Garcia were Editors of the daily papers here they did not feel they need to be wanted and relevant. They simply did their jobs as Editor of the daily papers.

I do not believe that we have seen or heard the last of this issue. The signs that were put up a few weeks ago have begun popping up in Knoxville again.